DEL MAR, Calif. – It is tricky business honoring people by naming racehorses after them. Horses do not all turn out like Frankel or Dr. Fager. So when they do turn out well, it is reason to celebrate.
The reasons are good Wednesday at Del Mar, where a fast Northern California shipper with a funny name – Sherman Bartlebort – is favored in the $100,000 Graduation Stakes. The race is the 2-year-old’s first in Southern California. He will run for an appreciative audience.
Get ready for what might be the most interesting stakes race of the year in Northern California.
Saturday’s Jess Jackson Owners’ Handicap at the Sonoma County Fair in Santa Rosa is not the richest or most important race on the Northern California race schedule. In fact, it’s not even the only stakes on the card, sharing the spotlight with the Wine Country Debutante for 2-year-old fillies, which may include the unbeaten stakes winner City Route.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Marketing Mix, who shipped here from Kentucky this spring to take advantage of the Canadian-bred 3-year-old filly program, had run well in three stakes without finding the winner’s circle.
But that changed emphatically last Sunday when Marketing Mix stretched out to 1 1/4 miles on the turf and was a much-the-best 4 3/4-length winner of the $250,800 Wonder Where Stakes for Canadian-bred 3-year-old fillies.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – After teaming up to win five races – including two graded stakes – through the first 10 days of the meet, trainer Todd Pletcher and owner Mike Repole will go from friends to foes in Wednesday’s $75,000 John Morrissey Stakes at Saratoga.
In the 6 1/2-furlong race for New York-breds, Pletcher will send out the closer Ibboyee against the speedy Be Bullish, whom Repole claimed for $75,000 in June and turned over to George Weaver, coincidentally a former Pletcher assistant.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Pender Harbour, winner of Fort Erie’s Prince of Wales Stakes at Fort Erie in his last start, heads a field of 15 expected for Sunday’s $500,000 Breeders’ Stakes here at Woodbine.
The Breeders’, a 1 1/2-mile turf race for Canadian-bred 3-year-olds, is the third leg of Canada’s triple crown, following the Queen’s Plate and the Prince of Wales.
Pender Harbour, who finished third in the Queen’s Plate, breezed five furlongs in 1:00.60 on the training track turf course here Sunday under returning rider Luis Contreras.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Burmah Star, one of the last fillies bred by the fabled Windfields Farm, seems poised to graduate in Wednesday’s third race, which is the first split of an Ontario-sired maiden special scheduled for seven furlongs on the grass.
Burmah Star has run three straight solid races on the grass, since a disappointing spring campaign on the Polytrack. She closed for second behind next-out winner Bubbles to the Top on June 22 and was a troubled third when she stretched out from six to nine furlongs in another maiden special July 9.
DEL MAR, Calif. - Average ontrack attendance has increased nearly 5 percent and average all-sources handle is down less than 1 percent through the first two weeks of the Del Mar meeting, track officials announced on Sunday.
Ontrack attendance has averaged 20,737, a gain of 4.8 percent over an average of 19,790 through a similar period last year.
Favored Victoryasecret ($4.60) scored her third straight win as she set leisurely early fractions and held off four rivals through the stretch to win the $60,400 Luther Burbank Handicap at the Sonoma County Fair in Santa Rosa on Sunday.
Victoryasecret, who began her winning streak with an allowance victory on the turf, had captured the Alameda County Fillies & Mares Handicap on the dirt at Pleasanton in her last start. She returned to the turf for the race against older fillies and mares Sunday.
DEL MAR, Calif. - Euroears was loose on the lead. Smiling Tiger had a poor start. That was the difference between first and second in Sunday’s $250,000 Bing Crosby Stakes at Del Mar.
Euroears ($6.80) was never challenged on the lead, led by as many as 2 1/2 lengths, and finished in track record time of 1:08.17.
“He’s amazing,” said winning rider Rafael Bejarano. “He has a lot of heart when he makes the lead.”
Trainer Todd Fincher and jockey Juan Ochoa each won three stakes on the $1.1 million Zia Festival of New Mexico-bred races at Ruidoso Downs on Sunday.
The card was one of the richest of the meet and it featured six stakes for Thoroughbreds and four for Quarter Horses.
